Illinois Public Media

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

Illinois Public Media

Suspect In New York City Truck Attack Planned ‘For Weeks,’ Police Say

November 01, 2017

Investigators in New York City inspect a truck after a suspect plowed a vehicle into a bike and pedestrian path in Lower Manhattan and struck another vehicle on Tuesday, killing eight people and injuring at least 11 others. The suspect exited the truck holding up fake guns before being shot by police and taken into custody, officers said.

Don Emmert/AFP/Getty Images

Authorities say the man responsible for Tuesday's deadly truck attack in Manhattan planned the attack for weeks, and left behind a note in his rental truck declaring his support for the Islamic State.

John Miller, deputy commissioner of the NYPD, said the letter was written in Arabic and said that ISIS will "endure forever."

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo described the incident as a "classic case of a radicalization of a domestic jihadist who associated with ISIS," telling CBS on Wednesday that "the best evidence we have is that he was a 'lone wolf.' "

In the attack, a truck struck pedestrians and bicyclists on a riverfront bike path, then crashed into a school bus. Eleven people were wounded in the attack, including students on the bus. Eight people died.

After crashing his truck, the driver emerged holding "imitation firearms" and was shot by police, according to authorities. Knives were also found in the vehicle, Miller says.

A handout photograph, obtained courtesy of the St. Charles County Dept. of Corrections in Missouri, shows Sayfullah Saipov. In April 2016, a warrant for Saipov was issued in Missouri over an unpaid traffic citation.

Photo Credit: St. Charles County Dept. of Corrections/AFP/Getty Images

Five Argentine visitors to New York, friends celebrating the 30th anniversary of their graduation, were among the dead. A Belgian tourist was also killed, according to Belgian officials.

The suspect, Sayfullo Saipov, was shot in the stomach and taken into custody; he's currently hospitalized and receiving medical treatment, NPR's Hansi Lo Wang reports.

Leslie Danoff, who lives near the site of the attack and could see bodies on the ground from her window, told NPR she was grateful that first responders were on the scene quickly.

"We have so many schools around this area," she said. "And it was shortly after 3 [p.m.]. It could have been worse if the police hadn't responded as quickly as they did."

Saipov, 29, is an immigrant from Uzbekistan who has lived in Florida, Ohio and New Jersey and worked as a commercial truck driver and an Uber driver, Hansi Lo Wang reports. An official in Brooklyn tells NPR that Saipov is a green-card holder.

Uber confirms that Saipov passed a corporate background check, and says it has not identified any security concerns from his time as an Uber driver. "We have reached out to law enforcement to provide our full assistance," a spokesperson told NPR.

Authorities say Saipov carried out the attack with a vehicle he rented from Home Depot.

The Associated Press reports that investigators worked overnight, shutting down a stretch of highway in Manhattan and also focusing on "a New Jersey home and a van in a parking lot at a New Jersey Home Depot store."

Meanwhile, the city's residents appear to be following Cuomo's earlier advice to "be New Yorkers and live your life." Officials said there was no sign of a larger plot, and with that, the city's Halloween festivities continued as planned.

Security measures in the city are being enhanced, officials say.

NYers are resilient and won't be deterred. Great to see large crowd at annual Halloween parade in Village. Thx for showing world who we are. pic.twitter.com/rl3gC0wXfl

Saipov moved to the U.S. in 2010 from Uzbekistan, a former Soviet state in Central Asia.

Acquaintances described him to The New York Times, The Cincinnati Enquirer and The New York Post as quiet, hardworking and friendly, and expressed surprise over the attack. "He did not seem like a terrorist," one fellow Uzbek immigrant told the Times. "He was really calm," another told the Enquirer. "He is [a] very good guy," a friend told the Post, which described the man as shocked to hear about the attack.

On Wednesday, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev sent a condolence letter to President Trump and volunteered his country's resources to assist with the investigation, according to multiple wire reports.

The comment was notable, the AP reports, calling Uzbekistan "one of the most closed off post-Soviet republics" and reporting that before now, the country "officially never commented or acknowledged any security incidents abroad involving Uzbek nationals."

On Tuesday, after the attack, President Trump tweeted that he ordered Homeland Security to "step up our already Extreme Vetting Program."

Dan Byman of Georgetown University and the Brookings Institution tells NPR that the administration's currently proposed changes to the immigration system — so-called extreme vetting — would "probably not" have prevented this attack.

Saipov "came from an area that wasn't on the list of top countries of concern," Byman says.

The terrorist came into our country through what is called the "Diversity Visa Lottery Program," a Chuck Schumer beauty. I want merit based.

"The proposals don't call for constant monitoring once someone is in the country," he says. "It seems like this individual became much more radical relatively recently. So the ideas on the table don't seem particularly relevant to this attack."

Trump tweeted more criticism of the immigration system on Wednesday morning, stating that the suspect entered through the "diversity visa" program, which offers a lottery for countries with historically low rates of immigration to the U.S.

One media outlet reported last night that Saipov had a "diversity visa," which NPR has not confirmed.

As The Washington Post reports, Schumer "did play a key role" in developing the visa lottery, which was part of an immigration package passed in 1990. But Schumer was later part of the "Gang of 8" group of lawmakers whose proposed immigration reforms included an end to the lottery, as Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) pointed out on Twitter.

The Post reports that the alleged connection between Schumer, the green card lottery program and Saipov was widely reported on right-wing media late Tuesday and early Wednesday. The newspaper notes that the program has been debated for years, with opponents raising concerns over national security risks and the possibility of fraud.